Video: Miriam Silverman is Starring in the Theatrical Masterpiece You've Never Heard Of

Hello, I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway World

Miriam Silverman is dazzling audiences as Mavis in the new production of Lorraine Hansberry's

Sign in City, Bruce Steen's Window, and I caught up with her here at the Museum of Broadway

First of all, I'm thrilled to be sitting with you here at the Museum of Broadway

Yes, we do. What an incredible journey you had been on with this show

What's made this so special for you? All of the unexpected turns that this process has taken, I think, that I fell in love with this play in 2016, doing it in Chicago

And it was so successful, and it felt so important to bring it that we had a couple of near misses bringing it to New York soon after that

The pandemic happened, and you sort of forget, and it sort of went away. And so the BAM production was like this gift that came out of the blue

and we still never expected Broadway to happen. So that's been the kind of crown jewel

to actually get this transfer and get to do it on Broadway for all of these, you know

for thousands more people over the course of these 10 weeks. It's been amazing

Because I first fell in love with it, bam, but I've been fascinated with this show for a long, long time

I remember seeing the window card of Rita Moreno and Gabriel Dell, that beautiful, purpley, white

drawing of them. I was always fascinated. I read the play, but I'm like, I got to see you all at BAM

and I was like, oh, I hope a larger audience gets to see this show. And now you're on Broadway doing this show

I know. It's amazing. It's so exciting. And it's been such a wonderful, thrill to see how Broadway audiences have embraced it

That just, like, feels just, you would never think it's a play from 1964 that people didn't know

And yet, it's full of surprises. And so you feel like you're giving people this new experience

and everyone who comes to see it afterwards, it's like, how did I not know this play

And that's the best. Okay, Mavis. Mayvis. What a fabulous character complex

I mean, explain who she is and what you love about her, because she's so not you

No, she's so not me, and that's part of the joy of it, right

Because she's just, you know, Upper East Side, rich, conservative, kind of seems to be when you first meet her pretty narrow-minded

lots of prejudices and lots of issues with the kind of milieu that her sister lives in and the company she keeps. Yeah

And it's fun to step into somebody that's so different and just to kind of relish in the wonderful humor

I mean, the lines that Lorraine Hansberry wrote from Mavis are pretty spectacular

But also then the challenge of trying to make her up three-dimensional whole

full human being who has secrets and finding the compassion and kind of asking the

audience to have empathy for her when you sort of it's a reversal like you meet

her and you're like oh she's the one we're gonna laugh at and dismiss and then

Hansberry doesn't let you do that yeah then there's a second act yeah then

there's a second act sharing the stage with this incredible company but

Oscar and Rachel what is it like sharing the stage with especially Oscar you do all your scenes with

I know. I can't remember ever having a better scene partner than him

It is such, it's exciting and the thrill and feels like every night there might be something new we discover

He's such a brilliant actor and such a brilliant, everybody knows he's a brilliant screen actor, right

And he's just so incredible as a theater actor also. It's so easy

so easy, you know, when we, if ever I feel like I'm having an off day or, you know, there's just been a lot going on

And so coming in I just know I can relax and just be with him lock eyes and just it all happens And that so nice And Rachel I only get that first act scene with her but she so amazing and so fun and sort of

both of them are very playful and spontaneous. So it never feels rote

It never feels like we're just doing the same thing again, night after night

It feels like alive and that anything can happen. So that's what I love about your performance

And there's, of course, too. I mean, you have to remember all this stuff

I know you have to be on this train, but you make it seem so new, but you've got to stay in the moment and know what you're saying

Yes. You know what I mean? It's that fine line of really fine acting that you walk with this

And it must be so great to have just a spontaneous every night. It's all different

It is. It's also the kind of actor I am where I really enjoy and relish that ability to stay within the framework

within the structure of the language and the text and what we built

But to be able to play around, there are, you know, there are actors that like things to be exactly the same way

and it can sort of throw some people if even you deliver a line differently

or you sort of do a different gesture. I mean, those small things, and it's like with both of them

it's slightly different and lived in and present tense every single night

And it's so enjoyable. Your director, Annie Kaufman, I mean, this has been a love project of hers for many, many years

and to see the journey this has been on working with her what that's been like for you

Annie's an incredible director. She's an incredible human being. She's the director at this point that I've worked with the most

I can easily say she's my favorite director, although a good friend of mine who's another favorite director of mine who lives in the UK

saw me post that the other day and said, favorite director? And I said, in America

Good for you. That was a quick one. You caught yourself. But she is

I worked with her for the first time in 2014. Yeah. In a Claire Barron play downtown called You Got Older

And I played the older sister who was sort of, it was a funny part and she was kind of in your face, very older sistery

And a year later when Annie found out the Goodman production was happening, I think she thought of me for Mavis because I had just kind of

lived in a more contemporary, but sort of similar vibe. And so this was our second project together

We then went and did this amazing Amy Herzog play Mary Jane together. We've done lots of workshops of different new plays, and I just would follow her anywhere

Yeah. I want to talk about you've been on quite a journey with this play, and so many personal

things have happened to you during this production, which I didn't realize early on

I saw the first week of this production at BAM. Oh, wow

And I didn't know what you were going through at the time. Yeah. And so I just want to tell our audience, you lost your mom during the first week of previews at BAM for this show

And over the years, I've spoken to many actors who have been through the same thing

And they said what saved them the most was being able to go to the theater and do what they do

And I just wanted, if you were just sure. share with us, I can only imagine what you went through. Yeah

During that, how were you able to juggle grief, your performance, and how helpful your director was for you during this time period

It's funny, I've been astonished to find out how many of my colleagues and friends

and just peers in the theater world have been through something like this

I think that both Annie and Oscar having lost parents while sort of in these big pivotal career moments

and having them really support me and hold me through the process was one of the only ways I was able to do it It so funny I don really remember those first few weeks of previews at BAM It was like I sure I was in some kind of fugue state you know But it was true that mom died on a Monday

and I remember waking up Tuesday. I mean, I can't, there's no, there are no words for the, like

depths of devastation. We were so close. She was the most incredible woman. I mean, I can't, there's no, there are no words for the, like, depth of devastation. We were so close. She was the most

incredible woman I will ever meet. And the only thing I could think to make me feel like a person, like a human being functioning

in the world, was the idea of going and doing the show that night. And Annie was amazing

Of course, we had been talking throughout the process, and everyone knew what was going on. I missed a lot of rehearsal leading up to previews because she was in the hospital for

weeks leading up to her death. But I remember Annie just very clearly

saying you do not need to do the show. We have a wonderful understudy. She's ready

So there was no pressure, but it was just this. But when I told her that I wanted to do the show

I said, am I crazy? Is this psychotic? And she said, no, this is exactly what you should do

And it was. It was the thing that, still to this day, I mean, I'm deep in the grieving process still

and I think I will be for a very long time or forever. I don't know. One of the only other things

that has helped me is just to acknowledge and accept. that I'm never going to feel okay about it, you know

And there's something in that that has taken the pressure off of getting myself together

You know, it's like, okay, I can just be a mess, and I forget things, and I drop balls, and I, you know

and I am normally a very, pretty organized person. And I'm just like, yeah, I'll just be a mess, and I'll show up when I need to show up

And yet, the ritual of going to the theater, of makeup and wig, and getting into costume

And then I think also this play, loving this play so much and feeling a part of something that is so important, I think

I think the piece is so important. It's so important to share Hansberry with the world and introduce them to the person they know as the author of Raisin and the Scyon and the site

but actually her work was staggering in its breadth and this play is just one piece of, you know

her life's work in 34 years, all that she put out there and made

And so having a sense of belonging to something so important is helpful too

and the fact that my role is so fun. I do think if it was some tragic heroin or ingenue that had to die every night

I don't know that you would have been able to stay with it

I think there's actually some kind of wonderful release in the fact that I get to go make people laugh and gasp and take them on this journey

and the fact that actually there's a lot of restraint required. Part of the beauty of the character and I think the way we've chosen to portray her in the production is that everything is sort of bubbling under the surface

but it has to stay put together. And there's something that is really useful in that structure, I guess

So I can be a complete mess all day and then go to the theater and sort of grounding myself

Yeah, it's very grounding. Your daughter went to see the show. Is she nine

She's nine. She's seen it twice. Does she love it? She loves it

After she saw it at Bam, she told us it wasn't long enough. And at Bam, it was running full three hours

I think our Broadway is like 245. And then she came to opening night on Broadway

And she loves it. And she has come. She came last weekend to the Saturday matinee

and hung out with me backstage the whole time. And then was so into it that she begged to come back

So she came back on Sunday. She was there on Sunday. And Sunday we had the excitement of Oscars Understudy going on for the first and probably only time And we were so excited We went and crawled into the back of the balcony and watched a bunch of the show

the scenes that I wasn't in, and she watched with me, you know. Aspirations to be an actress now

Yeah, big time. It just happens. You can't help it. No, I mean, is there a more fun workplace for a parent

You know, one of our ASM said to me, Yeah, this is a lot different than when I used to go to the bank where my mom worked

I love that. Yeah, yeah. But you know, I love that you have your family life

You're also a teacher. Yes, I am. Okay, so when your students found out that you were nominated for a Tony Award, what was that like

They were so excited. And I actually didn't know if I didn't know if they, I showed up to class that morning

Class started at 10, 15, and I didn't know if they would know

You know, seniors in college, do they look at the news in the morning

You know, I wasn't sure how on their radar it was, although the week before, they had all come to see the play at BAM

And so they had seen it, they knew it. And the week before, they had all said

you're going to get nominated for a Tony. And I was like, you guys, I'm not getting nominated. That's so nice. I'm so glad that you all think that

But that's probably not happening. And they were adamant. And I said, all, I'm not

But if I do, I'm buying you all donuts. So I showed up with donuts

They had also bought no donuts. So there was lots of donuts. And they had, yeah, they had heard the news

and they just all kind of gave me a huge, like, applause when I came in

and they were so excited. And it was kind of the perfect way to spend the day

Because you work on stage, film, and TV. You're a teacher. You're a mom

You've got a daughter. You've got a son. You've got a wonderful husband. I mean, you have this incredible life that you have

What gives you the greatest joy about going to the theater and doing this play in this incredible part that you're so brilliant in

Ah, I mean, my first thought is just the people that I'm getting to work with

It's just an exquisite group of actors, stage management, our crew, our wardrobe, our, the

women who do our hair. Everyone is so positive and loving and it's like we've really, it really

has felt like a family that I look forward to seeing. We had three weeks between the band run and coming back to Broadway and we all really missed each other

So that's a big part of it. But also just to say again, telling this story, bringing this play

somebody came to the theater the other night, a playwright who couldn't stop talking about the dialogue

How specifically the dialogue felt so modern, so sharp, so brilliant. And it was like, yeah, this is as good as anything that could ever be written now

Yeah. Have you chosen your outfit yet for the Tonys? Well. Has Stella helped you

Is your drawing for you? She has many opinions. Yes, I actually just came from a fitting to try on some more dresses

We've had some contenders, but I think today I found the one. Good for you

Yeah. This Tony nomination, totally out of the blue, what it means to you

It's an ecstatic experience. It feels like something that I, you know, you always do

dream about. You always wonder if that might happen and then you stop being 25 and you stop

being 35 and you just figure, I'm going to work and be respected and admired by my peers and I'll

I know I'm going to keep working. I have enough of a community and I'm known enough, but it's sort of

that wasn't like the aspiration. Sure. So now it just feels, it feels like this tremendous gift

an unexpected gift. So well deserved. You are so wonderful. Just enjoy the journey that drama this and thank you for making magic on stage and everything you do. I appreciate it